The most successful brands have created a unique personality and human voice for their Twitter handles, allowing them the ability to genuinely engage with their target audiences and cultivate an even greater sense of authority in their spheres of expertise.…

The most successful brands have created a unique personality and human voice for their Twitter handles, allowing them the ability to genuinely engage with their target audiences and cultivate an even greater sense of authority in their spheres of expertise. How do they do it? Well a lot of hard work, there is no getting around that. However, there are some basic rules of the road that every successful Twitter content strategy is build upon and consistently adhered to.

The 80/20 Rule for your Twitter Content Strategy

Effective Social Media engagement for brands is rooted in the successful execution of creating engaging content that:

80% of the time provides value to your followers through content your audience cares about, and

20% of the time promoting your brand’s products/services

How can this rule be applied to the Twitter sphere?

First let’s begin with, what the point of this platform is. Why do people use it?

Twitter is an online platform where users go to get information from real people who are deemed experts in their fields. It is an online space where access to these experts is allowed and where everyone interacts on a one-to-one level. Twitter is not a vehicle for push marketing; it’s a place for information sharing and real life interaction.

Great, I don’t have time to create all this new content and manage customer engagement. Yes, you do I promise. It’s all about working smarter not harder.

You know your industry inside and out. You know what information is valuable, but more importantly you know where to obtain that valuable information. This is the content curation part. Spend 45 minutes once a week and scout out 10 – 12 new pieces of content about your industry that is valuable. From each of those 10 articles you can pull at least 3 facts that are interesting/attention grabbing. That means for each piece of content someone else wrote, you have at least 3 tweets already written for you. That could be a blog post from an industry insider, a report put out by an organization, a news article written by a journalist covering your industry. The possibilities are endless.

You want to be seen as a thought leader and relevant to your audience. By sharing valuable information from credible third-party sources you are doing just that for very little effort and time.

Twitter Content Strategy: Time of Day Matters

Every Twitter handle has a unique time of day/week that its tweets are more likely to be seen and shared by its followers. This is unique because each handle has a distinctive set of followers that as a whole creates these windows of opportunity.

Start to monitor when your content gets the most engagement. You can use a free tool like Social Bro to do so.

I always suggest starting with thinking about who your target audience is. Are they professionals? If so, then start with commute times (7:00-9:30am and 5:00-7:00pm) and go from there. If your target audience is chefs then look into scheduling your tweets later in the day and evening.

When would your target audience be most likely to have time in their day to check Twitter? Start there, and be cognizant of the time zone you are tweeting in, and the one your target audience is reading it in.

Twitter and Search Engines Matters for Your Twitter Content Strategy

Twitter results are shown in both Google and Bing, and links including those found in tweets are used by search engines to find new web pages. Another added benefit is that these links when found by search engines are seen as a positive ranking signal for those pages.

Using Twitter to promote a link to a webpage has been shown to:

Speed up the search engine’s discovery of new content,

Assist with driving organic traffic to websites, and

Can quickly spread that information across Twitter to the individuals who are following that Twitter handle.

In addition, Google can tell when there is trending search and will change the search results to include more Twitter results. Therefore, having a strong Twitter profile is critical to use to respond to an online reputation management issue.
Having a successful Twitter handle doesn’t have to be a full-time job. I hope you find these tricks helpful. Please feel free to ask me any questions or start a discussion below in the comments.

Infographics can be an unbelievably powerful way to visualize data and tell a compelling story. Have you ever wondered why then some infographics take off like wildfire and others don’t? Let’s just assume the design is killer and all things…

Infographics can be an unbelievably powerful way to visualize data and tell a compelling story. Have you ever wondered why then some infographics take off like wildfire and others don’t?

Let’s just assume the design is killer and all things are equal on that front. Why then would one succeed while another fails? There are some key factors that can directly contribute to an inforgaphic failing, starting with how it’s hosted and ending in how it’s promoted.

So, let’s chat about all the ways you can make one a success; other than hiring a fantastic designer. The following guidelines will help you best host, optimize, pitch and promote your infographic to gain maximum visibility. Also, let’s not forget about making sure you properly track the analytics so you can measure your success and prove results.

How to Host Your Infographic

Where your infographic lives online is equally as important as what it contains. Your infographic should always live on a website where it receives its own dedicated URL.

Never upload a PDF version of your infographic onto your site or stick a JPEG or GIF version in the middle of a main page on your site. If you went through the trouble of taking a deep dive into your data, working with a designer to create the best visual representation of the data, and created a very compiling story why would you hide it under a bushel?

By providing your infographics with their own dedicated URLs you are showing your customers you are proud of this story, and telling the search engines there is an important piece of content they should check out. Only with a unique URL will allow you to properly optimize it for the search engines as well successfully promote it to both on and offline.

How to Optimize Your Infographic

Before you begin pitching an infographic, it’s important to make sure it is optimized appropriately.

Every infographic should have summary text at the top. Make sure to:

Include relevant keywords in that text summary text

Include the keywords you selected in the URL, and

Write a meta title and description for the page which include your selected keywords

How to Promote Your Infographic

The best approach for any online promotion is a multi-facetted plan of attack. Use as many of these promo tactics listed below as you can. It will help to ensure that you reach your target audience and gain maximum visibility for your infographics.

Obey the golden rule. This means that your infographics should live on one of your own web properties, because if you don’t post it, then why should anyone else?

Enable social sharing. Include social media buttons on the page the infographic lives so that readers can share it with their networks on their favorite social media platforms.

Include an Embed Code. Infographics are one of the most borrowed bits of content on the web. Website owners love to embed them on their own sites. By offering an embed code you are not only being a kind publisher, you are also ensuring the credit is properly given to you, and the traffic when people click to enlarge them.

How to Properly Track User Engagement with Your Infographic

Measurement is always the key to proving your success. Show that your promotion efforts have achieved your goal, whether that goal is increased website traffic to your site, or an increase in a desired action by the viewer (like encouraging people to sign up for a certain program or to buy a certain product).

You can measure the:

Inbound links to show how much traffic is being driven to your site

Social sharing to show how much engagement and visibility your infographic received

Social conversations occurring about your infographics that will offer you insight into your target audiences thoughts, which you can utilize in the future.

When creating infographics, be sure to keep these best practices for optimizing and promoting in mind. While you may create a visually appealing and valuable infographic, its success ultimately depends on how well it is shared and engaged with by others.

I find it interesting that a lot of my coder/webmaster friends are much more concerned with WordPress security than my blogger friends. There seems to be an inherent distrust for self-hosted WordPress sites, at least when you are discussing using it at an enterprise level.

I find it interesting that a lot of my coder/webmaster friends are much more concerned with WordPress security than my blogger friends. There seems to be an inherent distrust for self-hosted WordPress sites, at least when you are discussing using it at an enterprise level.

I however, believe that if it’s up on the Internet or accessible via the Intranet there are always security risks. The question becomes, how well can I mitigate them? So for all you owners of self-hosted WordPress sites or those of you thinking about launching one, here are some basic WordPress security tips.

Having one installed will stop basic attacks and a lot of spam, especially on blogs.

3. Don’t just de-activate the plugins you don’t use, DELETE them.

Deactivated plugins are a security hole. They can be used by hackers as a gateway into your site. So, make sure you plug this hole.

4. Delete all the themes you are not using.

Deactivated themes are also a security hole. So make sure to delete them if you aren’t using them.

If you want to remember what your favorites are, save the name and link to the theme in an email, or a text file. If you really are worried about losing the info. Create a new post within WordPress and never publish it.

5. Never use “admin” as your admin username.

Make sure to change the username with the WordPress interface, and within your server files.

This is one of the easiest hacks.

6. WordPress doesn’t review any updates to Plugins after their initial release.

Always check the change logs and make sure nothing looks out of the ordinary or other developers haven’t reported problems with the update, before you install it.

This is a great way for hackers to drop in Trojan horses.

7. Know what your file folders are on your server.

While you should NEVER touch your WordPress core files, you should know what the rest of the files on your sever look like, so you can spot an abnormality.

This will help you better spot a potential security problem, from a plugin update, or identify the timing of an attack.

Make sure to check your folders on a monthly basis to see if anything pops out at you.

]]>http://www.andreamfuller.com/wordpress-security-tips/feed/4391The Top 7 Things I Learned on Day 2 at Pubcon New Orleans 2013http://www.andreamfuller.com/top-7-things-learned-day-two-pubcon-new-orleans-2013/
http://www.andreamfuller.com/top-7-things-learned-day-two-pubcon-new-orleans-2013/#commentsThu, 25 Apr 2013 03:00:53 +0000http://www.andreamfuller.com/?p=865The post The Top 7 Things I Learned on Day 2 at Pubcon New Orleans 2013 appeared first on Andrea M. Fuller.com.

The second day here at Pubcon New Orleans 2013 was rather entertaining. While there was plenty of coffee to be found the big excitement for the day was the multiple tornado warnings throughout the late morning and early afternoon that kept all our cell phones buzzing.

The second day here at Pubcon New Orleans 2013 was rather entertaining. While there was plenty of coffee to be found the big excitement for the day was the multiple tornado warnings throughout the late morning and early afternoon that kept all our cell phones buzzing.

The sessions I attended today at Pubcon New Orleans 2013 certainly took a cue from the out-of-the-box excitement and kept up the interest throughout the whole day.

I have to warn you, the Pubcon New Orleans 2013 Day 2 sessions I attended were all over the place – beginning with Global SEO, ending with community management techniques and spanning multiple non-related topics in-between.

Therefore the top things I will be sharing will be as diverse as an around the world in 80 days trip. Bon voyage!

Day 2: The Top 7 Things I Learned at Pubcon New Orleans 2013

You need to sign up and get on the Google Knowledge Graph.
This will help with your White Hat SEO long game, by setting you up to be a trusted and known entity in the future. You can begin the process by signing up for Freebase.com

Google doesn’t measure you title tags by characters, but rather by pixel width.
You can actually fit over 100+ characters in your title tag depending upon the letters/words you use. Google uses Arial 16 and Bill Hartzer from Standing Dog Interactive created a wonderful testing tool for you to play with.

The reason for the multiple links on Baidu is to accomodate for the various written forms of Chinese.
Written Chinese is VERY new when you compare it to length of Chinese history. Each region has developed its own written style, and thus there are multiple words for one item, and as many grammar rules. Therefore, Baidu accommodates for this by adding in many links.

The same content translated into another language is still duplicate content.
Change the language to accommodate for the individual colloquialisms that will make it unique. Also, make sure to create unique meta data, in language, for each country.

Use hreflanguage tags in Google Webmaster tools for each country specific domain.
This will help Google understand which country they should classify the site in.

When conducting international SEO, TRUST is THE main factor for success.
If there can be any general rule applied to conducting successful SEO in all countries outside the U.S. it is TRUST. People within the country you are trying to target first and foremost must trust your site. You can create the best optimized site, but it won’t matter if the people within the country don’t trust your data.

Check out Haiku Deck for creating shareable and embedable presentations.
This is a new product that you can use on your iPad to create presentations instead of PowerPoint. It automatically allows you to share the presentation across all social media platforms and create embed code for each presentation. Take a look.

Day 3 of Pubcon New Orleans 2013 should be even more jam packed with knowledge, since a lot of the sessions I’m looking to attend are technical SEO related.

]]>http://www.andreamfuller.com/top-7-things-learned-day-two-pubcon-new-orleans-2013/feed/5673The Top 7 Things I Learned on the First Day at Pubcon 2013http://www.andreamfuller.com/top-7-things-learned-first-day-at-pubcon-2013/
http://www.andreamfuller.com/top-7-things-learned-first-day-at-pubcon-2013/#commentsWed, 24 Apr 2013 03:26:34 +0000http://www.andreamfuller.com/?p=851The post The Top 7 Things I Learned on the First Day at Pubcon 2013 appeared first on Andrea M. Fuller.com.

What have I learned the first day at Pubcon 2013 in New Orleans? It's hot, and there is no coffee inside the Convention hall. Seriously, it's true, but not however the key takeaways.

What have I learned the first day at Pubcon 2013 in New Orleans? It’s hot, and there is no coffee inside the Convention hall. Seriously, it’s true, but not however the key takeaways.

Below you will find the seven simple things I have learned today here at Pubcon 2013. (This will be a series so please check back in throughout the week for more tidbits I think are worth sharing.)

Day 1: Top 7 Things I Learned at Pubcon 2013 Today

Do not use PR Newswire or any other major distributer of press releases.
Instead provide an embargoed press release to your top 5 -7 influencers/reporters. Let them break the story and have them link back to the press release on your site.

Get your Infographic embedded in at least 5 major sites.
This will significantly increase it’s chances in ranking well in organic search, having a shot at becoming “viral,” and in having longevity.

Test your own data.
Everyone’s relationship with their target audience is unique. So, test for when your email open rates are highest, etc. You are your own standard, so test yourself, and make adjustments to improve.

Email marketing is worth every penny spent on it.
Having contact information for your target audience is still a valuable commodity. Don’t discount it, especially when they have opted in for your content.

Make targeting those people online that influence your influencers part of your online marketing strategy.
A lot of people forget that marketing to the influencers of your target audience(s) is a great way to reach them.

Try a little bit of everything and see what works best for your site.
You and/or your company is unique, so don’t forget it. Try all the best practices with your spin on it, and see what works best for you. It’s ok.

Don’t ask anyone for exact match links.
If you are asking people to share (write) about your content trust them to describe it appropriately and link to it appropriately It will look more natural – because it is – and not offend webmasters/publishers.

Thanks to all the panelists today that gave these great tips and insights.

]]>http://www.andreamfuller.com/top-7-things-learned-first-day-at-pubcon-2013/feed/6692Google Plus for Business: Are You Utilizing The Power of G+?http://www.andreamfuller.com/google-plus-for-business/
http://www.andreamfuller.com/google-plus-for-business/#commentsSat, 16 Mar 2013 21:32:47 +0000http://www.andreamfuller.com/?p=830The post Google Plus for Business: Are You Utilizing The Power of G+? appeared first on Andrea M. Fuller.com.

Yes, I can hear the groans. I am sure you are thinking "Another online platform? I can hardly handle Facebook, and LinkedIn, and ." Yes, Google Plus for business is the way to go, and here are my reasons why.

Yes, I can hear the groans. I am sure you are thinking “Another online platform? I can hardly handle Facebook, and LinkedIn, and <insert all other social media platforms here>.” Yes, Google Plus for business is the way to go, and here are my reasons why:

Top Seven Reason Why Google Plus for Business is Vital:

Google Plus is run by the world’s largest search engine.

By participating on Google Plus you are feeding your content straight into the world’s largest search engine.

Google Plus allows you to list out and link to all your online profiles.
a) By providing Google with all this information you are building your online authority.
b) By building your online authority you will rank better in the SERPs.

Google Plus allows you the ability to create and share media rich content easily and for free.

Google Plus has content rich “Communities” that focus on specific topics. By participating in “Communities” where your target audience(s) are, you will be providing them with valuable information in a contextually relevant way.

You do not have to advertise with Google Plus in order to be seen in your followers’ news feeds.

Google Plus for business use is a no brainer to me. It’s free, easy to use, and provides you with immediate ROI without any investment or advertising cost. My question is why aren’t you utilizing it?

]]>http://www.andreamfuller.com/google-plus-for-business/feed/4489YouTube Optimization Tips for Both Channels and Videoshttp://www.andreamfuller.com/youtube-optimization-tips/
http://www.andreamfuller.com/youtube-optimization-tips/#commentsMon, 14 Jan 2013 18:22:39 +0000http://www.andreamfuller.com/?p=797The post YouTube Optimization Tips for Both Channels and Videos appeared first on Andrea M. Fuller.com.

I thought I would share some YouTube Optimization Tips, that you can utilize quickly and that will immensely aid in your overall SEO strategy efforts. I will break the tips down by channel and video so you can quickly grab-and-go as needed.

I’m still surprised at how few videos on YouTube are optimized for search. Has no one Googled “YouTube Optimization Tips” before? I’m not referring to the stupid stunts, or cute cat videos our fellow citizens of the world are uploading just for the fun of it. No, I’m referring to businesses and organizations that have money invested in their online platforms, and hopefully have mapped to ROI goals. However, I digress.

Therefore, I thought I would share some YouTube Optimization Tips, that you can utilize quickly and that will immensely aid in your overall SEO strategy efforts. I will break the tips down by channel and video so you can quickly grab-and-go as needed.

YouTube Optimization Tips for your YouTube Channel

Add Channel tags to your account.a) Select 3 – 5 keywords that you want people to be able to find you for.b) This will also aid the search engines in properly contextualizing your presence online and your video content. Thus making it more realistic your content will be served up in search engines results.

Add Featured Channels.***a) By adding links to other like-minded businesses/organizations/individuals’ YouTube channels you will increase the awareness for your videos/playlists/channel with them, and increase the likelihood they will share your videos with their online communities.

*** Always check with your Legal Department before adding Featured Channels. Sometimes there are legal ramifications in doing so. I’ve always believed it’s easier and better for you in the long run if you ask permission not forgiveness with them.

YouTube Optimization Tips for your Videos

Always optimize a video’s title and description for search.

Place a link to your website in the first paragraph of your video’s description so people viewing it, will see it above the fold.

Make sure to categorize your videos using tags.

Transcribe your videos and add the .txt file to each video when you upload it.a) This will not only aid in the search engines being able to index your videos better, but
will also aid in helping them be more accessible to those internet users utilizing a
screen reader.

If you have the budget and time, conduct online niche pitching for each video and playlist

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions or have any other useful items to add to either YouTube Optimization Tips list.

Social Media for most of us has become an integral part of everyday lives. So, it's not too much of a shock to see that it has also positively affected the realm of charitable donations. Social Media Fundraising has been a rising trend, but it was the most successful in 2012.

Social Media for most of us has become an integral part of everyday lives. So, it’s not too much of a shock to see that it has also positively affected the realm of charitable donations. Social Media Fundraising has been a rising trend, but it was the most successful in 2012.

MDG Advertising, has just released an infographic illustrating some fantastic metrics about the state of Social Media Fundraising in 2012. Here are some of what I believe are the most interesting stats:

The average social media donation has increased by 55.26% since 2010.

If a friend posts a charitable donation to a social media platform 68% of their friends take time to learn more about the charity.

If a friend posts a charitable donation to a social media platform 39% of their friends donate to the charity as well.

Just by using Twitter the fundraising goal increases anywhere between 263.93% and 883.50%.

]]>http://www.andreamfuller.com/social-media-fundraising-in-2012/feed/5847UPDATE on Pinfluence: The Discovery of a Brand Comparison Tool for Pinteresthttp://www.andreamfuller.com/update-on-pinfluence-the-discovery-of-a-brand-comparison-tool-for-pinterest/
http://www.andreamfuller.com/update-on-pinfluence-the-discovery-of-a-brand-comparison-tool-for-pinterest/#commentsThu, 03 Jan 2013 22:29:43 +0000http://www.andreamfuller.com/?p=779The post UPDATE on Pinfluence: The Discovery of a Brand Comparison Tool for Pinterest appeared first on Andrea M. Fuller.com.

A while back, I wrote a post called "Pinfluence: The Discovery of a Brand Comparison Tool for Pinterest" on what I thought at the time might be an exciting find in the barely existent world of Pinterest metrics. They key phrase being "thought at the time."

Since that post, I have gone through a demo with the owner of Pinfluence and determined this product will not only, not give you the metrics you need, but will potentially get you in trouble long-term, especially if you are running a page for a large brand/company.

Here’s what I learned about Pinfluence from the demo:

They will pay people for you to re-pin or like your posts, so that your success “metrics” will be positive.

They do not believe that influencers on the web are valuable to your cause. (In fact, when I questioned them about being able to target “niche influencers” it was not a term she had heard of before.) Instead, according to Pinfluence, targeting individuals with small followings is the best way to spread your message.

They do not have any special insights, tools or databases to provide demographic information about other Pinterest users, thus allowing you better target your messaging.

They were unable to clearly articulate what metrics they provided, and what the ROI was for each metric, or the overall metrics.

They do not know what keywords really are, even though they supposedly work with a search firm. Meaning, from an SEO perspective they do not engage in the keyword research. Instead, they think up “keywords” they believe people will be searching on and use those, and then do no legitimate research on-top of it. In addition, they had never heard of personalization as it relates to SERPs.

All in all, I would not use this service, even including their free brand comparison tool. Sorry, this was another instance of if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

]]>http://www.andreamfuller.com/update-on-pinfluence-the-discovery-of-a-brand-comparison-tool-for-pinterest/feed/7309Pinfluence: The Discovery of a Brand Comparison Tool for Pinteresthttp://www.andreamfuller.com/pinfluence-brand-comparison-too/
http://www.andreamfuller.com/pinfluence-brand-comparison-too/#commentsTue, 13 Nov 2012 19:42:01 +0000http://www.andreamfuller.com/?p=675The post Pinfluence: The Discovery of a Brand Comparison Tool for Pinterest appeared first on Andrea M. Fuller.com.

In my quest to find a reliable Pinterest metrics collection platform I stumbled upon Pinfluence, a new platform that looks like a cross between EdgeRank Checker Pro and Facebook ads, just for Pinterest.

I have written an updatefor this post with more information. Come check out, why you shouldn’t use this product.

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

If you are like me you have been looking for a way to collect Pinterest Analytics. Pinterest is a great site, and could be very useful for some of my clients, and I am sure yours. However, with the lack of ability to cheaply and reliably collect Pinterest Analytics I have been reluctant to utilize and integrate this platform into a client’s greater online marketing strategy.

Pinfluence’s Metrics for Pinterest
In my quest to find a reliable Pinterest metrics collection platform I stumbled upon Pinfluence, a new platform that looks like a cross between EdgeRank Checker Pro and Facebook ads, just for Pinterest.

The issue is the Pinfluence site only teases you with the promise of metrics reports, it never tells you what is in it, how they collect it, or even a screenshot of what it looks like. I was so intrigued I spent 30 minutes scouring the Internet for some more info and unfortunately found bupkis.

On my last final sweep of the Pinfluence site, I did however discover a brand comparison tool that I think will suffice for high level comparisons much like Compete.com does for website traffic.

Pinfluence’s Brand Comparison ToolLet’s me honest, the likelihood that Pinfluence’s Brand comparison tool remains free for long is probably quite slim, but while you can I highly recommend taking advantage of it.

The Brand Comparison tool provides you with some wonderful metrics such as the number of:

pins

re-pins

comments

likes

boards

profiles

The nice thing, as you can see from the screenshot on the right, is that Pinfluence provides you with raw numbers as well as pretty bar charts and pie graphs illustrating those numbers.

This tool has some very useful purposes much like Compete.com does for website traffic. By providing you with some basic information on how many boards a company has, or how many pins/re-pins they have you are able to create a ballpark assessment of the company’s footprint on Pinterest. Just like Compete.com provides you with a ballpark figure of how much traffic a website gets per month, Pinfluence’s Brand Comparison tool provides you with a ballpark understanding of how large an influence a company has, or how popular content relating to them is.

Drawbacks to Pinfluence’s Brand Comparison ToolAs with all free tools there are some drawbacks to using it. Luckily these drawbacks aren’t around the ability to use the tool, but around interpreting the information it provides. Below is a list of what I believe are the major drawbacks and why.

Time

There is zero mention of what date range these metrics came from. Is this a week’s worth of pins and re-pins? Or is it of all time? Without that information it’s impossible to draw any real conclusions about the popularity of a brand.

In the screenshot above I compared Coke to Pepsi. Coke had 500 pins and Pepsi had 390. If this was of all time, you would conclude neither brand was very popular on Pinterest. However, if the time frame was just a week, you would have the exact opposite conclusion.

Content Naming

This brand comparison is between “Coca Cola” and “Pepsi.” However, if I change the keywords I use to “Coke” or “Coca-Cola” or “Pepsi Cola” the results I am given are all completely different.

Content Ownership

Since the keywords matter in returning results, I am forced to question where the content is pulled from. Meaning, does it pull results for all content labelled with “Coca Cola” regardless of who owns the Pinterest board it resides on? My guess is yes, it’s an aggregate of all content labelled with “Coca Cola” simply because the metrics change with the keywords.

If this assumption is true, then these metrics take on a completely different meaning. Instead of getting a clear picture around how popular a brand’s self-published content is, you are instead getting a clear picture of the popularity of the brand in general on the platform. That is a very large distinction.

The key is in understanding what information is being provided. Once you know that, you can use the information in the correct way.